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Kiss FM...

M

mr.ric

I saw on Kiss FM’s Facebook page over the weekend that they are no longer on 104.5 but only on 93.7’s HD2 channel. Since I’m out of the area right now, is something else airing on the 104.5 translator, or is it dead air now? Is iHeart planning to relocate the station to another translator or are they somewhat throwing in the towel after just a year?
 
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Appears to be running an Urban format with iHope branding. No commercials or talent during my time listening, could easily be mistaken for the old Kiss format. There was a promo for a weekday 5am religious program, which makes me wonder if we are headed for Urban Gospel on 104.5...what we are hearing might not be the final format.

Will have to see if Kiss pops up somewhere else, or if iHeart is pulling the plug after less than 18 months.

Update: Just heard a sweeper for “iHope FM, dedicated to making your day a better day” followed by a religious message. I sense this will be a “positive music” religious station, perhaps an Urban version of what you would hear on an EMF format.

Another liner: “iHope FM, bringing hope to the hopeless.” Also promoted a religious talk show.
 
iHope? Is that the starter of the format has an iPhone, or maybe IHeartRadio has something to do with it.
 
I don’t remember whether or not it was normal for a syndicated program to air only on an HD2-based station. A friend of mine said he still heard Steve Harvey this morning on 93.7 HD2.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
Coming just a few weeks after the demise of SportsMap 94.1 I suspect we may be seeing the end of broader format efforts on translators. Seems only tightly targeted ethnic formats or religion are working. Wondering how long La Calle will last.
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Not a huge surprise.

After being forced to drop power to legal (or at least near legal) levels, what should have been obvious from the start became apparent. You can't cover Greater Houston with a translator.
 
Any commercial venture on a 99 watt signal in Houston is destined to fail because broad-based building penetration does not exist and mobile listening gets squishy in a hurry. Even a 250 watt signal is questionable, unless it's solely to support an existing profitable operation. Gow Media Sports formerly at FM 94.1 and iHeart Kiss-FM formerly at 104.5 should examine why they listened to their so-called professional advisors. Virtually every contributor on this site knew better.
 
ThatVoice22 said:
Any commercial venture on a 99 watt signal in Houston is destined to fail because broad-based building penetration does not exist and mobile listening gets squishy in a hurry. Even a 250 watt signal is questionable, unless it's solely to support an existing profitable operation. Gow Media Sports formerly at FM 94.1 and iHeart Kiss-FM formerly at 104.5 should examine why they listened to their so-called professional advisors. Virtually every contributor on this site knew better.
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Can't say what happened with Gow, but I have to think iHeart knew the signal's limitations going into it. There are a lot of very competent engineers at iHeart, both locally and nationally.
 
Wonder what is supposedly feeding 104.5 now. As of right now, it doesn't appear to be any of the iHeart HD subs as one would expect.
 
AnyHuman said:
Even RadioInsight's not yet aware of the answer to that question...
https://radioinsight.com/headlines/174591/iheart-ceases-operations-of-104-5-kiss-fm-houston/

"The translator is now operating with a mix of Urban Gospel and secular R&B as “iHopeRadio“. No indication yet who the new operator is or what station the translator’s programming is originating from."


Maybe they found a station not connected to iHeart to rebroadcast?
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More likely they just cut out the middle man.
 
Just did another quick scan, the 104.5 audio is now playing on KQBT-HD3... the HD3 is about a minute behind K283CH.
 
stan said:
More likely they just cut out the middle man.
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I read a translator in San Antonio did this a few years ago, actually for around4 or 5 years until finally caught by the FCC and then they shut down.
 
I'm fairly certain that all of the Centro xlators are being fed directly, with the supposed "source station (aka HD subchannel)" actually being fed off-air by the translator.
 
Oh wow. So 104.5 sounds pretty bad on-air? I thought it was OK to feed translators with Internet, HD sourcing them wasn't actually required.
 
AnyHuman said:
Oh wow. So 104.5 sounds pretty bad on-air? I thought it was OK to feed translators with Internet, HD sourcing them wasn't actually required.
Click to expand...

"HD fed" translators are normally fed by something other than an off air feed of the HD for better sound quality. They are required to go off the air if the HD channel itself goes off, but can use IP audio, 950 mHz STL, etc., to get their audio.
 
I listened for 15 minutes before and after the top of the hour yesterday. Never heard a legal ID. They ran a contest with a local phone number though. The air talent (multiple people) all had an accent that made them sound like they weren't local - to the United States. Jamaican? Odd mix of urban AC music and sports talk.

Does anyone know if this programming is actually on an HD subchannel, or has Centro decided that translators can originate programming without one again?
 
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